February 14, 2010

Podcast Episode 122: The Continuing Saga of HO CHE ANDERSON

Dwight and I were joined on this one by our good buddy, Adrian Johnson, and for two reasons.

One, Adrian brought up Ho Che Anderson's name as someone that would be cool to chat with and we were like, "Yeah!"

And two, Adrian has so much admiration and love for Ho Che's work that we knew he would add something special to the mix. And indeed he did.

For those of you who don't know Ho's resume, he's best known for his KING series that came out in the early '90s from Fantagraphics Books. KING was a sequential art retelling of the life and last days of Martin Luther King, Jr, with some fictionalized elements thrown in. It ended up being a critical success that brought a lot of eyes to Ho's work.

Beyond KING, he's worked on a variety of interesting projects like Pop Life, Young Hoods in Love, the erotic I Want to Be Your Dog and Scream Queen (by the way, Fantagraphics is releasing an expanded version of Scream Queen this month called Sand & Fury—check for it).

Anderson was born in London, England but has lived in Canada for most of his life. In our conversation with him, we cover that aspect of his background, some of his influences, much of his comics work and his future as a budding filmmaker.

He and a friend, Gerald MacKenzie, have just recently launched a small production company called Assassin Films. With the release of their first short, The Salesman, Ho Che is on his way to making the transition from comic book creator to movie maker—should be interesting!

We also get Ho's take on the Comics Journal interview he did back in the day and end things with a nice, little surprise for Adrian (you have to hear this one to appreciate it, 'Nation).